Friday, October 29, 2004

Pox Shots Shot Down

Buried deep inside today's New York Times on Page A19 is a story from the A.P. wire entitled "Judge Halts Forced Anthrax Shots." Why am I pissed about this? Because "hundreds of service members have been punished or discharged for refusing them, according to the Pentagon." For shame.

On a related note, I am the proud owner of a one-year-old baby blog.

I originally started this blog to advertise my play, "The Rules of Embedment or Why Are We Back In Iraq?" Check out my very first post. I first started blogging in March of 2003 at this address before I stopped to write my play, but it wasn't until a few months ago, when I began blogging more frequently, that my traffic significantly increased (lesson for you bloggers out there just starting out).

Thanks to everyone who has ever landed here, 12,175 hits and counting (a third of those hits just in the last three months alone). Thanks to everyone who has ever linked to me from their website or complimented my words and work (especially you, Mick, because I still keep getting hits from this post). Thanks to the bloggers who belong to the Progressive Blog Alliance for all the support and technorati padding (I'm mighty proud of our work, so far).

Why were the two related?

Forgive me, it was a cheap trick to publicize my reason for being here. A scene from my play which relates to the A.P. story:

LANG - Ted, I’d like your thoughts on something that’s been bugging me out. But forget my name, hometown and especially color because this is strictly off the record.

TED - You have my word.

LANG - I read some stuff on the Internet about pox shots. How it may give you the Gulf War sickness that killed lots of vets. I even had a buddy back in boot camp that refused the shot. They arrested him and threatened him with a lengthy imprisonment on account of refusing orders but, luckily, he got off with just a dishonorable discharge.

TED - That's reasonable.

LANG - Flipping like that ain’t gonna get me money for school so I had to bite the bullet. Do you think I should worry? You took it too, right?

TED - I’ve heard that there may be some unintended negative health consequences but the effects of being attacked with it are horrifyingly evident.

LANG - So even with all your doubts about Iraqi WMD, you still believe that we may face a chemical weapons attack.

TED - Between you and me, honestly, in all probability, speaking strictly from my gut – no. But anything is possible. And it might not be long before everyone in America receives inoculations anyway.

LANG - You really think?

Ted - Remember the anthrax attacks of 2001. Those were mainly directed at the Media but it was normal people and mailmen that suffered most.

LANG - You’re right about mailmen. They ain’t like normal people, either.

TED (chuckles) - I didn’t intend to say that.

LANG - Thanks for keeping it real. It relieves me to know that a man as well informed as you can display such prudence. I’ve read a lot of crazy shit on the Internet. It’s hard to know whom to believe.

Contributors

"Or take this guy, Ron Brynaert, a tenacious (lefty, stand alone) investigator with an instinct for where information and proof and the jugular are. He's a natural: Why isn't he on someone's I-team?" Jay Rosen, June 6, 2005.